That Shining Light
by AKissAndAGunshot
Summary: Did He actually leave us? Was He there all along? POP08, alternate ending AND beginning. sorry, for all you people - specifically, none -  who follow me for the romance stories, there is no real romance.


/storyteller: it takes time for a dead soul to cross the border realms, especially if it is going the wrong way. Not much time, but the delay is there. Keep that in mind.

Edit: who knew? Apparently immeasurably old cosmic entities speak Greek.

X-X-X

That Shining Light

X-X-X

-sometime long before there even was time...

"You won't win."

The voice was not a voice. If analyzed, it would bear a more significant resemblance to a force, as would its owner. But both the voice and the entity from which it had issued were beyond mere examination. When this being spoke; when its heavenly, terrifying voice rang across the cosmos, planets ground to a halt in their orbits so as not to interrupt.

"I think I will." The second voice was different but the same. At its insidious command, pulsars stopped spinning and black holes gave up their imprisoned light. "I hold a much greater presence in this world. Between the stars and throughout the infinite void am I: but you cling to tiny points and dots. I can defeat you."

Here, in this place which existed only to be between other places, were the only circumstances under which the two beings could parley without directly attacking each other in the process. Their function aspects had no real meaning here.

"Brother, you could never defeat me. You are ending; a product of the eternal slide to ruin. I am beginning."

"Be silent!" The second voice boomed. "I will freeze the stars, those furnaces of your being! I will dissipate the nebulae that glow in the depths! You will fall by my hand! Every beginning must have its end!"

"Brother..." the first voice was soft, and yet it still rang with an authority that could command suns; unmatched save for the being it addressed. "I am truly sorry for what I must do..."

"What? What are you..." the second voice was cut off.

The two beings found themselves flung from the immalleable chaos that was the place between, and returned to the infinity of space and stars that was their home.

The second being focused what could loosely be called its gaze on its brother, and if it had possessed eyes, they would have widened in realization. It screamed as the white, burning ray of light stabbed right through its celestial body. It began to shrink. Its brother spoke again:

"Dusk falls, yet dawn always breaks the night. You creep into the spaces that the light leaves: I force you from your holds, cracking your grip like the light of the sunrise.

"Every beginning has its end. But the beginning is as eternal as the ending." The first being was glowing brightly, somehow holding the second trapped under the scorching, cold light.

"Consider an acorn;

"It lands in the dust, and presently sprouts.

"And after an eon, the mighty oak tree withers. A storm eventually snaps its trunk, and it falls.

"But as it falls, another acorn drops from its dead branches. A tiny oak seeding takes root at the grave of its father.

"And the circle starts again.

"No matter how hard the storm rages, the trees grow back...

"No matter how deeply the night holds, the dawn sweeps it away."

The surroundings flashed and changed. The two beings were now much smaller, although scale was merely a matter of perspective to entities such as these.

A colossal tree grew in a desert caldera. Under its roots lay stones to put mountains to shame. The glaring light of this young planet's day-star shone down, scorching the writhing being as it struggled against his brother's grasp.

The being, glowing serenely, gazed at the massive slabs of rock, watching them change to its will. Soon, they formed a dwelling not unlike that of a lesser aspect spirit.

The first being gestured with what would pass for its hand. The second felt ethereal ropes binding him.

"I will escape," hissed the second being viciously. "I will win this. I will be your end, Ormazd!"

Ormazd smiled faintly, despite his lack of a definite face. "Didn't you know, Arhiman? Nothing ever ends. Nothing ever begins, either... but everything changes." He picked up several grains of sand, which began to glow. "This sand will hold you in. You will try to escape, but every time, you will be stopped. Over and over, until you are ready to provide balance once more, you will return here." Ormazd was shrinking now. The grains of sand grew in size, changing shape. The began to resemble Ormazd's aspect of life, although without the nebulous omnipresent quality that he always possessed.

Ormazd's voice flickered over the desert. "They will think I have abandoned them, never considering that I am always with them... but they will fight you anyway. They are my finest creation." Ormazd smiled, vanishing as he poured the last dregs of his energy into the newborn humans.

From his eternal cage, Arhiman watched malevolently.

X-X-X

-an interminable gulf of eons later...

This was it. This was the crossing of the paths. The choice was before him and he had run out of time.

'SPAN LANG="hi-IN"شاهزاده/SPAN'. 'The prince'. That had been his name for such a long time that he could no longer remember the name his mother had given him. Yet now, with his sword in his hand and ready to strike down the tree that warded against an ancient evil, he felt anything but royal.

'How can I be doing this?' Said one side of his mind. 'I laboured for days without respite to imprison this monster! Will I bring all that ever was to ruin, just for her?'

But then another part of him spoke up, one that he did not recognize. 'Yes. There is another way to keep him held. I may not know how right now. But I can stop him again, and permanently.'

He cut the tree down at the root.

X-X-X

Her body lay in the warm morning light. The darkness had not started to seep from the temple yet, and to an untrained eye everything appeared normal.

He released the glowing orb above her chest. It dissolved, flowing over her and leaving azure trails of light on her beautiful, tragically tranquil face.

Nothing happened. The prince fell to his knees, tears streaming his face. It hadn't worked, and he had released Arhiman for nothing.

He knelt there, weeping, for several minutes, before dully standing up and turning to leave. His heart felt like it was bound with lead. He wondered briefly where he should go next, before descending into total apathy.

He heard a sudden hacking, desperate gasp, followed by a hasty exhalation. His heart almost stopped from shock.

Though he had not exactly heard it on a regular basis, he instinctively recognized the sound: lungs that were previously emptied were fervently filling themselves to the bursting point and then releasing.

She was alive.

He dashed over to the rock slab before she had even finished taking her second breath. He held her gently.

"W... why?" She coughed, tears trickling down her cheeks and falling to the stone slab, to mingle with those of the prince.

"Because..." his voice trailed off. "Because some things are far too important to die for," he said cryptically. He set her down again, as if she was made of the most delicate spun glass. "Truly valuable things... are worth living for." He carefully maneuvered her into a sitting position, and then stood up.

"I'll be right back. I have a score to settle."

X-X-X

The prince stood in the doorway of the sanctum, gazing into the infinite darkness.

"...what have you returned for?" Hissed the black voice. "Do you wish to strike a deal, as others have before?"

The prince realized that he had no idea what he was doing. All he knew was that this creature had to be stopped. It had killed millions of innocents. It had killed Elika.

It had killed Elika...

Although the statement was questionable, the prince had never been one for pedantics. The mental connection was made.

He began to shake with anger. This creature had stolen the only girl he had trusted enough to love. The rage course through him, and was suddenly amplified.

Something deep within him was howling with fury against this, this THING. This thing which brought ice and death to hundreds of worlds which I had striven to bring life to! This thing which had snuffed out my suns even as they started to burn! This THING, which, in eons past, had been MY BROTHER!

The prince suddenly smiled.

'Elika was wrong. He never left us,' he thought to himself. 'He helped us every step of the journey.'

Light shone from his eyes, rending the darkness like a sword.

The prince laughed out loud, and with the merest effort of will he conjured a sphere of light as bright as the sun. Arhiman roared, but was forced back from the awful glow.

"You will return to your prison now," said the prince in an eerie voice. However, his sarcastic demeanour still had the last word. "Your parole has been canceled!"

The inside of the chamber went completely white and silent.

X-X-X

The prince opened his eyes.

The corruption was gone. Arhiman was bound again. That much he had expected.

He stood up stiffly and looked around.

The grass and moss of the sanctum was gone. The walls were clean, polished stone again. As his gaze traversed the chamber, he almost gasped in shock.

The tree was gone.

In its place was a flat rock seal, about three feet in diameter, covered with ornate writing. The prince could not read most of it, although he recognized the script. It was the oldest language known. 'And now,' the prince thought sardonically, 'we have proof that it is THE oldest language that exists. Apparently gods speak it.'

Although he could not read the majority of the writing, he recognized a certain word which he had gone to the trouble of learning for purposes quite similar to these.

'πρίγκιπας' was written just below what appeared to be the title of the stone inscription. It meant, of course, 'prince'.

He laughed a little. "Should have known that it would become my real name eventually," he chuckled, sitting irreverently on the now-permanent seal that bound the dark god.

He heard faint, pattering footsteps, and smiled. Only one person would be walking around barefoot here.

Elika appeared. She looked around the pristine sandstone of the sanctum in awe. "You... how did you do it?" She asked in a small voice. She looked unsteady...

He dashed up to her, catching her even as she fell.

"He didn't leave us, Elika." He picked her up and started walking out of the temple.

Try as she might, she could get no other answer from him. But she didn't really need one.

Even in her weakened state, she had felt Arhiman being forced from the land, as that shining light enveloped the temple and the tree that grew over it.

X-X-X

-Finis!

Well dang. I was planning to put some princeXElika Romance in there(cutest couple ever!), but the story was being a sulky little b**ch and decided it was going to end before I could work it in.

By the way, if you see a bunch of question marks or two quotation marks all on their lonesome, that is an upload error. The first one should be Persian script, the second should be Greek letters.

Sorry if the ending sucks a little.

Read and review! 


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